Struggling with Low Energy - Any Advice?

I just can't seem to get energy at all. Does anyone have problems with not having energy?

Hi Mimi, welcome to the site. I can relate to that. I had to motivate myself often and sometimes force myself to do the littlest thing. But that was while healing from the surgery. Now energy comes if I eat right and think about the end results of whatever I want to accomplish. I also believe it has to do with our mental state. But I guess it depends on both together as a whole. What do you or will you be going through?

Hi Mrs. A, thank you for the welcome. It will take me a while to get used to the site, but I hope it helps me. I have had my colostomy for almost 5 years now. I have also had other procedures that the doctors say may be why I still don't have energy. I have had many stents changed, and after 3 years they removed my kidney, so now no more stents. I also had my thyroid removed a year ago. I also had a hysterectomy when they removed the cancer, so therefore I have weight that I can't get rid of. I try to push myself to do things, and when I do too much, my body feels like it just "shuts" down.

Mimi, you have come to a wonderful site. There is tons of information here in blogs and forums, some people will relate to the things each of us go through in our existence as an ostomate. I was noticing recently just how many folks are on the site.
I too have a colostomy from cancer and have had a hysterectomy while undergoing the cancer removal. I will have to research about the stents and how one's body does when having the kidney and thyroid removed.
But please don't push yourself too hard. It can take a long and steady road for our bodies to recover. Your body knows best on when to shut down, listen to it. Hope to get to chat with you in real time in the general chat sometime.

Hello Mimi. Welcome to the site and I hope you are able to get some useful information from it.  I can relate only too well to a lack of energy but I do no think mine has anything to do with the ostomy as I have had it on and off all  my life. When I first went into hospital for an operation I was told that my blood pressure was very low - apparently this can cause tiredness.  This was a great relief to me as I now had an explanation for one type of tiredness. However, I had also identified that I 'suffered' with different types of tiredness of which the low blood pressure was just one. Another was when I was feeling low in mood and lacked motivation. (psychological) Yet another was when a very sudden and overwhelming fatigue would come over me and I would be unable to continue doing anything. I would literally collapse in a heap and simply wait until the feeling passed.  I never did get to the bottom of this but as it only comes on spasmodically I don't concern myself too much with it.  Of course, I was extremely tired for a while after surgery but this was to be expected especially as I lost weight that I could ill-afford to lose and was not eating properly.  Another type of tiredness comes about when dealing with the worst type of bureacracy and other forms of needless idiocy.  I would label that as being 'sick and tired' of something specific. This next form of tiredness seems somewhat counter-intuitive but I also get tired when I am doing nothing or I have nothing to do. The 'best' type of tiredness for me is when I have been working long and hard and there is an obvious reason for being tired. I often tell myself that if I'm going to be tired, I might just as well be tired in such a way that it has some other satisfaction for me. Thus, I am generally percieved as someone who is always 'doing-something'.  Other people do not have the insight into the reasons beind this 'active' facade, so for me tiredness has similar characteristics to being an ostomate. We have a condition that generally is not visible to other people and, unless we choose to share our experiences, others are unaware of the baggage we have to carry just in order  to get by from day to day.  I tried to capture some of these concepts in the verses on 'coping with chronic illness'.

This may not be helpful to you in a practical way but it was useful for me to be able to share it with someone in this way.

Best wishes  Bill

Living with Your Ostomy | Hollister

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